Woman is making supplication and praising His qualities: ‘I shall be pleasing to the Lord if I utter His praises.
‘The Bairagi[1] liveth in the true palace; if He allow me
to go to Him, I will go.
‘Without God I am without honour and strength; how
shall I obtain comfort in His palace?’
Nanak, in Jeth if a woman know God and embrace virtue,
she shall by His favour become like unto Him.
The month of Har is sultry;[2] the sun is burning in the
sky;
The earth is suffering; it is parched and heated like fire;
The heat is drying up moisture; men die in anguish,
yet the sun wearieth not of his toil.
When his chariot turneth towards the south,[3] woman
looketh for the shade; the grasshoppers chirp in the
forest.
She who hath departed with her sins shall suffer in the
next world, while she who remembereth the True One shall
obtain comfort.
Nanak, with God, to whom I gave my heart, are death
and life.
In Sawan be happy, O my soul; it is the season of clouds
and rain.
‘I love my Spouse with my soul and body, but the Dear
One hath gone abroad;
‘My Spouse cometh not home; I am dying with the pang
of separation; the flash of the lightning terrifieth me.
‘I am alone on my couch and greatly grieved; O mother,
my pain is as bad as death.
‘Say how can sleep and appetite come to me without God? Raiment affordeth my body no comfort.’
- ↑ God, in the sense that He loves not the sinner. The word Bairāgi ordinarily means a man without love for the world. The Bairāgis now form a special sect who worship Vishnu and wear sacrificial threads. They are distinguished from the Sanyāsis who worship Shiv and dispense with sacrificial threads.
- ↑ We are obliged here to take a liberty with the word bhala, which means good.
- ↑ After the summer solstice.
